A.

A, in language at

the first letter of the alphabet in the English, and many other fourfold, as in the words father, call, tame, and hat. The first of these sounds is that which generally prevails in other languages. The modified pronunciation of the vowel in tame is partly due to the vowel e at the end of the word; in call and similar forms, the peculiarity arises from the letter; so that the only true sounds of the vowel are perhaps the long sound in father, and the short one in hat. The printed forms of this letter, viz., the capital A, the small character a, and the italic a, are all derived from a common form, differing but slightly from the first of the three. In the old Greek and Latin alphabets, from which our own has descended, the following were the ordinary figures of this letter:

among which, the fourth and fifth only differ from the rest in the rounding of the angle; the form consisting of straight lines being well adapted for writing on stone, metal, &c. ; the rounded letter, on the other hand, being better suited for expeditious writing, with softer or more flexible materials. From this last our two small characters are easily deduced. For the explanation of the fact that this letter is allowed the first place in the series of letters, see ALPHABET.

A or AN, the indefinite article. Of the two, an is used before a vowel. Where the following word begins with a consonant, it being more troublesome to express the final n, this letter, from not being pronounced ceased to be written. Thus we say an emperor, but instead of an king, we find it more convenient to say a king. Some times a virtual consonant exists at the beginning of a word without being written, as in union and once, where the ear catches the initial sounds of y and w, younion and wunce. Before such words it is customary to drop the final letter of the article, at least in pronunciation, and there can be no good reason for not writing a union, a once beloved monarch. On the other hand, whenever his mute, we should retain the n both in writing and speaking, thus, a history, but an historical work. That an and not a is the primitive form of the article, is proved by the Anglo-Saxon an, and the German ein; indeed, our own numeral one is only another and fuller form of the same word. In such phrases as three shillings a pound, the article evidently has this meaning. The double shape of our article has led to a corrupt mode of writing certain words, thus from an eft was deduced a neft, a newt; and the reverse seems to have taken place in the change of a nadder to an adder.

A, as a prefix in English words. 1. In such words as afoot, aside, aboard, we have simply, as Horne Tooke observes, corrupted abbreviations of on fote, on syde, on borde, &c. This on is an Anglo-Saxon preposition with the meaning of in. Thus, in the old translation of the New Testament we have he fell on sleep, for asleep. The same is the origin of the a, which so often precedes our verbal nouns in ing, as he is gone a-walking, the house was so many years a-building; and indeed it was only by the suppression of this a that our imperfect participles in ing came into use. A similar formation appears in the French en sortant, &c., and the Celtic languages generally form their imperfect participle, by prefixing a preposition of similar power to the infinitive, that is, to an abstract noun expressing the idea of the verb. 2. But an a also appears at times in the formation of the perfect participle. Thus ago, formerly agone, ashamed, afeard, now dishonoured as a vulgarism, are

ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. I.

A'BACUS.

the perfect participles of the verbs go, shame, and fear, the latter of as a reflective verb I fear me, that we have the idea of the Latin vereor, and our modern I fear. This non-accented a is but a variety of the y, so familiar in the old participles yclept, yseen, &c., and consequently it represents the ge of the German ge-gangen, &c., which is commonly allowed to be an old preposition signifying thoroughly. 3. In some verbs of Saxon origin, the prefixed a represents the inseparable preposition on of the Anglo-Saxon, a little word no way connected with the preposition on already noticed, for it corresponds to the German ent and Greek ava. Thus to awake, that is, to wake up, is the AngloSaxon on-wacan; and a-cknowledge is closely related to the AngloSaxon on-cnáwan, and the Latin a-gnosc-ere, whose prefix is of similar origin, and no way related to the ordinary Latin preposition ad. 4. On the other hand, in some of our Norman words, such as amount, avail, and their compounds, so familiar in legal language, par-amount, par-aval (See Mr. Ludlow's paper, Philolog. Soc. Trans.' for 1854, p. 114), we have, as in the ordinary French preposition à, the representative of the Latin ad, ad montem, up; ad vallem, down. 5. Lastly, our obsolete or Lowland-Scotch compound prepositions a-fore, a-yont, a-hint, must be placed beside the current forms, be-fore, be-yond, be-hind, ab-aft, ab-out, ab-ove; forms which point to a disyllabic preposition abe. In the same way, the Homeric evi, appears in kindred languages sometimes as in or en, sometimes as ni or ne, and as i alone, as in 'the, &c.

AB, the fifth month of the ancient Hebrew year, but now the eleventh (or, in intercalary years, the twelfth), in consequence of the transfer of the new year from spring to autumn.

On the 1st day of Ab a fast is held in commemoration of the death of Aaron. On the 9th a fast is observed in remembrance of the destruction of the Holy Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 588 B.C., and of the destruction of the second Temple by Titus, A.D. 70. This fast is considered the most mournful of the whole year. On the 18th another fast is observed. All these fasts are postponed one day if they fall on the Saturday.

A little festival called Tub-ab, or the fifteenth Ab, is celebrated on the 15th day, to commemorate an ancient custom, according to which the young girls of each tribe came forth into the fields clothed in white, and exhibited themselves in dances before the young men, with the view of being selected by them in marriage.

The month of Ab may begin in some years as early as the 10th of July, in others as late as the 7th of August.

Ab is the name of the twelfth month of the Syrian year, coinciding with our August.

ABACISCUS, in architecture, is a diminution of the architectural term ABACUS, and is principally applied, when used at all, which is not often, to the tiles or squares of a tessellated pavement.

A'BACUS, a game among the Romans; so called from its being played on a board, somewhat in the manner of chess.

A'BACUS, in architecture, is the level tablet, whether square or oblong, which is almost always placed on the moulded or otherwise enriched capital of a column, to support the horizontal entablature. The architectural application of the term Abacus, which in the original is applied to any rectangular tile-like figure, arises from a story which Vitruvius tells of the manner in which the foliated capital called the Corinthian originated. The modifications in its form in the various orders of Greek and Roman architecture will be seen in the article COLUMN. In Gothic architecture, the abacus undergoes numerous changes and modifications, not merely in the several styles, but also in

B